Alexander Merkel
Encyclopedia
Alexander Merkel is a German
professional footballer who plays as a midfielder
for Serie A
club Genoa
.
to Russian
parents of German
ancestry, Merkel moved to Germany with them in 1998, aged 6. There he started playing football with amateur team JSG Westerwald, before joining VfB Stuttgart
at the age of 11.
side Milan
. During his time in the club's youth system, he was a member of the under-20
side who won the Coppa Italia Primavera
in 2010, 25 years after the team's last success in the competition.
Merkel received his first call-ups for the senior team during the 2009–10 campaign, but he was never fielded nor named on the bench. At the beginning of the following season, he took part in some pre-season games, putting up good performances. Merkel eventually made his first-team official debut on 8 December 2010, coming off the bench in a UEFA Champions League
group stage game against Ajax, He also came off the bench against Tottenham
on the 75th Minute for Boateng on 6 January 2011, he also made his league debut, figuring in the starting line-up for a match against Cagliari
. Merkel went on to score his first professional goal on 20 January, as Milan pulled off a 3–0 win over Bari
in the Coppa Italia
round of 16. In total, he made ten appearances, six of which were in the league, throughout the season.
in co-ownership
with Milan, which, in turn, signed Stephan El Shaarawy in a same type of deal. Merkel made his official debut for the club in 4–3 win over Nocerina in third preliminary round of the Coppa Italia
, on 20 August 2011. Made his first assist of the season with a left-footed cross to Marco Rossi in the Juventus 2 - 2 Genoa.
in a 4–1 win against Switzerland and has since represented Germany at all levels of youth international football up to under-19. In a December 2010 interview, he stated that he "dreams" of going on to play for the senior team
one day.
In another December 2010 interview he said that he is interested in representing Russia
. Russian Football Union president Sergey Fursenko
and Russia's coach Dick Advocaat
both commented saying that he can't be called up as he does not actually possess Russian citizenship. Merkel noted that naturalization should not be a problem, considering that an American-born Jon Robert Holden
played for the Russia national basketball team
.
In February 2011, Merkel's adviser Arthur Beck, father of German international Andreas Beck, confirmed the player's renewed wishes to be capped for Germany.
1European competitions include the UEFA Champions League
.
2Other tournaments include none to date.
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
professional footballer who plays as a midfielder
Midfielder
A midfielder is an association football position. Some midfielders play a more defensive role, while others blur the boundaries between midfielders and forwards. The number of midfielders a team uses during a match may vary, depending on the team's formation and each individual player's role...
for Serie A
Serie A
Serie A , now called Serie A TIM due to sponsorship by Telecom Italia, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and has been operating for over eighty years since 1929. It had been organized by Lega Calcio until 2010, but a new...
club Genoa
Genoa C.F.C.
Genoa Cricket and Football Club, commonly referred to simply as Genoa , is a professional Italian football club based in the city of Genoa, Liguria...
.
Early career
Born in KazakhstanKazakhstan
Kazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world, it is also the world's largest landlocked country; its territory of is greater than Western Europe...
to Russian
Russians
The Russian people are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Russia, speaking the Russian language and primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....
parents of German
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
ancestry, Merkel moved to Germany with them in 1998, aged 6. There he started playing football with amateur team JSG Westerwald, before joining VfB Stuttgart
VfB Stuttgart
Verein für Bewegungsspiele Stuttgart 1893 e. V., commonly known as VfB Stuttgart, is a German sports club based in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg. The club is best known for its football team, which has participated in all but two Bundesliga seasons...
at the age of 11.
Milan
In 2008, Merkel transferred to ItalianItaly
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
side Milan
A.C. Milan
Associazione Calcio Milan, commonly referred to as A.C. Milan or simply Milan , is a professional Italian football club based in Milan, Lombardy, that plays in the Serie A. Milan was founded in 1899 by English lace-maker Herbert Kilpin and businessman Alfred Edwards among others...
. During his time in the club's youth system, he was a member of the under-20
A.C. Milan Primavera
Associazione Calcio Milan Primavera are the under-20 team of Italian professional football club Associazione Calcio Milan. They play in the Group B of the Campionato Nazionale Primavera. They have been champions only once, back in 1965...
side who won the Coppa Italia Primavera
Coppa Italia Primavera
The Coppa Italia Primavera is an Italian football competition played for by youth teams from Campionato Primavera. All players are under 20 of age. The first edition was held in the 1972-73 season....
in 2010, 25 years after the team's last success in the competition.
Merkel received his first call-ups for the senior team during the 2009–10 campaign, but he was never fielded nor named on the bench. At the beginning of the following season, he took part in some pre-season games, putting up good performances. Merkel eventually made his first-team official debut on 8 December 2010, coming off the bench in a UEFA Champions League
UEFA Champions League
The UEFA Champions League, known simply the Champions League and originally known as the European Champion Clubs' Cup or European Cup, is an annual international club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations since 1955 for the top football clubs in Europe. It...
group stage game against Ajax, He also came off the bench against Tottenham
Tottenham Hotspur F.C.
Tottenham Hotspur Football Club , commonly referred to as Spurs, is an English Premier League football club based in Tottenham, north London. The club's home stadium is White Hart Lane....
on the 75th Minute for Boateng on 6 January 2011, he also made his league debut, figuring in the starting line-up for a match against Cagliari
Cagliari Calcio
Cagliari Calcio is an Italian football club based in Cagliari, Sardinia. The club was formed in 1920 and currently plays in Italian Serie A, having spent a large part of recent years mainly in Serie A and Serie B....
. Merkel went on to score his first professional goal on 20 January, as Milan pulled off a 3–0 win over Bari
A.S. Bari
Associazione Sportiva Bari is an Italian football club founded in 1908, they are based in Bari, Apulia and plays in Serie B. The club have spent many seasons bouncing between the top two divisions in Italian football, Serie A and Serie B....
in the Coppa Italia
Coppa Italia
The Coppa Italia is an Italian football annual cup competition. Its first edition was held in 1922, but the second champions were not crowned until 1936. Roma and Juventus lead the way with nine wins. Roma has contested more finals, 16, while Torino and Juventus follow with 13...
round of 16. In total, he made ten appearances, six of which were in the league, throughout the season.
Genoa
At the beginning of the 2011–12 season, Merkel joined GenoaGenoa C.F.C.
Genoa Cricket and Football Club, commonly referred to simply as Genoa , is a professional Italian football club based in the city of Genoa, Liguria...
in co-ownership
Co-ownership (football)
Co-ownership is a system whereby two football clubs own the contract of a player jointly, although the player is only registered to play for one club...
with Milan, which, in turn, signed Stephan El Shaarawy in a same type of deal. Merkel made his official debut for the club in 4–3 win over Nocerina in third preliminary round of the Coppa Italia
2011–12 Coppa Italia
-=First round:=-----=Second round:=-----=Third round:=-----=Fourth round:=-Section 2:-=First round:=---------=Second round:=---------=Third round:=-----=Fourth round:=-Section 3:-=First round:=...
, on 20 August 2011. Made his first assist of the season with a left-footed cross to Marco Rossi in the Juventus 2 - 2 Genoa.
International career
Merkel made his international debut for Germany U-15Germany national youth football team
This article includes current squads of Germany U20, U19, U18, U17, U16 and U15 national football teams.-Current technical staff:- Germany national under-20 squad :- Germany national under-19 squad :- Germany national under-18 squad :...
in a 4–1 win against Switzerland and has since represented Germany at all levels of youth international football up to under-19. In a December 2010 interview, he stated that he "dreams" of going on to play for the senior team
Germany national football team
The Germany national football team is the football team that has represented Germany in international competition since 1908. It is governed by the German Football Association , which was founded in 1900....
one day.
In another December 2010 interview he said that he is interested in representing Russia
Russia national football team
The Russia national football team represents Russia in association football and is controlled by the Russian Football Union , the governing body for football in Russia. Russia's home grounds are Luzhniki Stadium, Lokomotiv Stadium , and Petrovsky Stadium in St.Petersburg and their head coach is...
. Russian Football Union president Sergey Fursenko
Sergey Fursenko
Sergey Aleksandrovich Fursenko is a Russian businessman.He is a brother of Andrei Fursenko.Since July 2003 Sergey Fursenko is the Director General of the JSC Lentransgaz, a subsidiary of Gazprom....
and Russia's coach Dick Advocaat
Dick Advocaat
Dirk Nicolaas "Dick" Advocaat is a Dutch football manager and former player currently the manager of the Russia national football team.He has been moderately successful as a football player and as a coach, which included two stints with the Dutch national football team...
both commented saying that he can't be called up as he does not actually possess Russian citizenship. Merkel noted that naturalization should not be a problem, considering that an American-born Jon Robert Holden
Jon Robert Holden
Jon Robert "J.R." Holden is a retired American Russian professional basketball player. The Russian spelling of his name in Latin form is Dzhon-Robert Kholdin. He played NCAA Division I college basketball at Bucknell University from 1994-98...
played for the Russia national basketball team
Russia national basketball team
The Russian national basketball team represents Russia in international basketball matches. The team came into existence after the dissolution of the Soviet Union and its powerful basketball team. It has won 2 silver medals in the FIBA World Championships...
.
In February 2011, Merkel's adviser Arthur Beck, father of German international Andreas Beck, confirmed the player's renewed wishes to be capped for Germany.
Statistics
As of 20 August 2011.| Team | Season | Domestic League |
Domestic Cup |
European Competition1 |
Other Tournaments2 |
Total | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | ||
| Milan A.C. Milan Associazione Calcio Milan, commonly referred to as A.C. Milan or simply Milan , is a professional Italian football club based in Milan, Lombardy, that plays in the Serie A. Milan was founded in 1899 by English lace-maker Herbert Kilpin and businessman Alfred Edwards among others... |
2009–10 2009–10 Serie A The 2009–10 Serie A was the seventy-eighth season since its establishment. There were three promoted teams from the Serie B, replacing the three teams that were relegated following the 2008–09 season. Nike provided a new match ball - the T90 Ascente - for this season... |
0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | – | 0 | 0 | |
| 2010–11 2010–11 Serie A The 2010–11 Serie A was the 79th season since its establishment, the first under a league committee separate from Serie B. It began on 28 August 2010 and ended on 22 May 2011... |
6 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 0 | – | 10 | 1 | ||
| Total | 6 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 1 | |
| Genoa Genoa C.F.C. Genoa Cricket and Football Club, commonly referred to simply as Genoa , is a professional Italian football club based in the city of Genoa, Liguria... |
2011–12 2011–12 Serie A The 2011–12 Serie A is the eightieth season since its establishment, and the second under a league committee separate from Serie B. It began on 9 September 2011 and will end on 13 May 2012. The league was originally scheduled to start on 27 August, but this was delayed due to a strike by the players... |
4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | – | – | 5 | 0 | ||
| Career Total | 10 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 15 | 1 | |
1European competitions include the UEFA Champions League
UEFA Champions League
The UEFA Champions League, known simply the Champions League and originally known as the European Champion Clubs' Cup or European Cup, is an annual international club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations since 1955 for the top football clubs in Europe. It...
.
2Other tournaments include none to date.